KARACHI: Members of the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday expressed dismay over mismanagement in almost all public sector hospitals, where despite a regular increase in the annual budget for health, hard-pressed families are compelled to take their patients but neither get medicines nor any tests are done.

They said the doctors prescribed medicines which were not available at the hospital stores and the costly machinery provided by the government to carry out tests was often found out of order, forcing family members to purchase the medicines at certain private medical stores and to get the tests done by private laboratories of the doctors’ choice.

These observations were made by half a dozen MPAs across the house while speaking on a private resolution tabled by Saifuddin Khalid of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, urging the provincial government to equip all government hospitals with the latest medical technology, necessary lifesaving drugs and fully equipped labs to provide basic health facilities to the people.

Minister for parliamentary affairs Dr Sikander Mandhro said he did not agree with those portraying a dismal picture of all public hospitals. He said although there was enough room for improvement of services and management in the hospitals, there were private organisations and philanthropists as well as good doctors who were running some very good hospitals such as the Indus Hospital and the Gambat Medical Institute.

He said the government had carried out a study from experts for upgrading hospitals to meet the need of the population after 50 years in the district hospitals and had also sought cooperation from the management of the Indus Hospital and other charity organisations in running the medical facilities.

The minister said instead of criticising the government, all lawmakers should help improve services in the hospitals. He said the Badin district hospital would be upgraded to a 300-bed hospital with the cooperation of the Indus Hospital.

Minister Syed Ali Mardan Shah said the condition of all hospitals was not as bleak as was painted by the lawmakers. He cited the example of the district hospital in Umerkot, where not only all medicines were provided to the patients but doctors were also available round the clock.

Information minister Sherjeel Memon said there was a need to amend the laws governing the hospitals. He said the Sindh chief minister had already formed committees comprising such doctors as Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi and members from civil society to make all purchases of medicines, doing away with the practice of buying substandard medicines. The committees would also ensure that the machinery purchased was of quality and before handing it over to hospitals necessary staff would be trained to ensure its maintenance.

Earlier Saifuddin Khalid tabling his resolution pointed out the working of the mafia in the public sector hospitals, where doctors were forcing people to buy medicines at certain stores selling substandard medicines.

He said costly machinery provided to hospitals was made dysfunctional just in a few days and patients were made to go for tests at private facilities outside the hospitals.

He said another trend among doctors was to prescribe many tests before starting treatment. He cited the example of a patient from Orangi Town, who hardly could afford to pay the Rs100 fare to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. When he reached there he was made to have tests costing Rs12,000 within three days.

He said the ASH and the Qatar Hospital, where half of the city population visited for treatment, for the last two to three years had been facing a financial crunch.

Syed Murad Ali Shah of the PPP said that mismanagement in the hospitals was so bad that even a middle-class person could not afford to go to the public hospitals.

Nusrat Sehar Abbasi of the PML-F said the dismal situation not prevailed only in the civil hospitals of Karachi and Hyderabad but in all civil, district and Taluka hospitals.

Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh of the PML-F suggested constituting boards to oversee the working of hospitals and that elected representatives also be nominated on their boards to help improve the system.

Dr Seema Zia of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said improvement in health and education facilities was only possible if appointments were made on merit without submitting to political influence. She said the NICH paediatric ward and the Jinnah Hospital’s work was good due to involvement of some private organisations .

After the speeches, when the resolution was put to vote it was carried unanimously.

The other resolution taken up in the house was to accord a warm welcome to the street children football team which brought home a bronze medal from Brazil.

A resolution tabled by PPP MPA Dr Nand Kumar pertained to low pressure of gas in Sanghar.

Speaking on the resolution, Dr Sikander Mandhro said Sindh produced 70 per cent of the total output of gas in the country and the constitution guaranteed that gas wherever produced had to meet the requirement of the province on priority. He said the constitutional provision was not being practised by the federal government and should be implemented as such violations were the cause of distrust between the province and the federation.

Ghulam Quadir Chandio said the gas company which was paid millions of rupees in advance for laying gas pipelines had failed to carry out any scheme.

Dr Nand Kumar said that due to low pressure of gas, in winter children went to school without breakfast.

The other resolutions from the order of the day could not be taken up as every member of the house wanted to pay tribute to the football team seated in the speaker’s gallery. The national anthem was played at 3pm, after which the speaker called it a day to reassemble on Friday.